Onetime Utah resident Leipheimer is a last-minute replacement for Lance Armstrong, who declined to compete for the U.S. cycling team. Leipheimer is destined to go through the Olympics with that moniker, but he has impressive credentials of his own, including a ninth-place finish in the just-completed 2004 Tour de France — the best American other than you-know-who — and an eighth-place Tour de France finish in 2002. Utah bicycling purists will remember Leipheimer's Salt Lake days for, among other things, the 43 minutes and six seconds it took him to complete the 1996 Snowbird Hill Climb, a record that still stands eight years later and might never be broken.

BYU's best sprinters of all-time, Africans Fredericks and Myles-Mills, may be past their respective primes, but no one will count them out on the track in Athens. At 36, Fredericks will be, if nothing else, a sentimental favorite after his second-place finishes behind Linford Christie and Michael Marsh in the 100 and 200 at Barcelona in 1992, respectively, and Michael Johnson and Donovan Bailey over the same distances at Atlanta in 1996. Johnson and Bailey both set world records to outlast Fredericks, who didn't compete in 2000 because of injury.

As for Lott-Hogan, the 29-year-old assistant women's track coach at BYU has the 20th-best individual heptathlon mark in the world this year, about 600 points behind world leader Carolina Kluft of Sweden. But on a good day with a great hurdles race — her specialty among the heptathlon's seven events — the determined Utahn could scare the field. (The best score recorded by Lott-Hogan's onetime BYU running mate, Trinidad & Tobago's Mark-Baird, ranks 60th this year).

University of Utah 2003-04 Mountain West Conference Freshman-of-the-Year Bogut has earned a starting position at center on the Australian basketball team, which means he'll begin his Olympic experience opposite Yao Ming, the starting center for China, when Australia opens against the Chinese team on Aug. 15. With fourth-place finishes in both 2000 and 1996, the Australians have maintained good Olympic consistency, although finishing fourth this year, let alone medaling, appears more daunting in what is shaping up as the most competitive Olympic basketball tournament ever. Puerto Rico's basketball team also faces an uphill battle, but the Jazz's Arroyo will start his Olympics in style. He's been appointed the designated flag-bearer for the Puerto Rican Olympic Team in Friday night's opening ceremonies.

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E-mail: lbenson@desnews.com